This invention is related to the personal transport vehicles that are typically used to ride people to their desired places by running both on land roads and on water surfaces. It also relates to the amusement apparatus of motorized watercrafts that are typically used to ride people on water surfaces for the amusements of water sports
It is known that motorcycle is one of the important transport vehicles on the road. Because of its smaller volume and lighter weight, it is more fuel economic and space save than passenger cars. It is also much nimbler and less restriction of road condition than personal car; therefore, it is popular as the cross-country utility sports vehicle. Motorized watercraft is a recently popular transport apparatus on the water surfaces. With some similar characteristics of motorcycle, it has the name of the xe2x80x9cwater motorcyclexe2x80x9d. It is quite popular as one of the water amusement utility sports gears. Although the motorcycle and the motorized watercraft have something in common, they are two totally different transport equipments in different application categories. If a motorcycle can possess the capability of motorized watercraft running on water surfaces and if a motorized watercraft can possess the capability of motorcycle running on roads, it should be a useful and attractive development. It is noted that to design a boat driven by a land vehicle or a land vehicle can run on the water surfaces have been recognized for a long time. A number of inventions comprise the close known prior arts and embodiments, which have presented a variety of methods to use the power of land vehicles to propel boats, or adopt some technique of motorcycle in watercraft design:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,661;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,785;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,533;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,937;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,546;
JP Patent No. 185811;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,843;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,601;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,176;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,056;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,832;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,317;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,156.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,661 to Duff presented an amphibious motor-driven cycle that had an occupant-receiving hull, in which the front wheel well was defined by a special unit that provided watertight continuation of the hull and allowed the front wheel to turn for steering the vehicle on land. It used vanes mounted on the rear wheel to propel the vehicle through the water. The said invention did not provide a rational structure to retract and seal its wheels into a cabinet to reduce the dynamic resistant force of water when it runs on water. In fact, the use of vanes required the rear wheel to fully engage with water to generate propulsive force.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,785 to Mycroft presented an amphibious structure for a family automobile. The said structure included a wheel fairing structure for covering wheels. With the structure, it needed to twist the front torsion bar of the vehicle and to move the suspension of front wheel up and down. It also needed to retract the rear wheels by overcoming the spring force of suspension spring. To enclose the retracted wheels, it used both a motor-driven rotational parallel links and a motor-driven gear and rack to drive the outer fair members to cover the outer side of the rear wheel, and it needed a motor-driven gear and rack to drive the outer fair members to cover outer side of the front wheel. The said invention used a motor and gear transmission to rotate the inner fair members to cover inner side of the retracted wheels. When the vehicle was used as a boat, it did not necessarily provide an effective steering system and structure, and did not necessarily provide a workable propulsive system and structure. The structure of the said invention did not necessarily provide an effective and economic method. Moreover, the uneven and rough bulge of the structure to contain the retracted wheels had not necessarily provided a fair structure to reduce the dynamic resistant force of water when it runs on water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,533 to Kobayashi et al. presented a small watercraft that had a single steering control to control two steering nozzles of jet propulsion units. The said invention did not form a closed loop of wire to control the steering nozzles. With the invention, when the wire used in the steering control was in compression the steering function of the invention might not necessarily work.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,937 to D""Arena presented an amphibious motor scooter that had a pair of flotation tanks which were hinged to the sides of the vehicle. The invention did not intend to provide a structure to reduce the dynamic resistant force of water, and it did not necessarily provide an effective steering system and propulsive system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,546 to Miklos presented a motor-boat propelled pontoon boat that had a steering control which used a pilot wheel to operate a cable hooked on each side of the outboard motor. The invention was only for controlling a single propulsive unit of outboard motor, and it might not be necessarily used to control two propulsive units. Furthermore, since the steering force was generated by the friction between the steering shaft and the cable, if the resistant of the steering force was larger than the friction force, the cable might slide on the steering shaft and the steering control might not necessarily implement its steering function.
JP Patent No. 185811 to Sugimoto et al. presented an amphibious vehicle that had a left float and right float mounted on both left side and right side of the vehicle body respectively. The said invention did not intend to provide a structure to reduce the dynamic resistant force of water, and it did not necessarily provide an effective steering system when it is driven for water traveling.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,843 to Smith presented a device receiving motive power from a source which may be individuals, bicycles motorcycles automobiles, etc., and which was particularly used for transportation over water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,601 to Yoo presented a boat to temporarily carry a vehicle, and said vehicle was arranged to drive a propeller shaft of the boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,176 to Capilla presented a boat propelled by a motorcycle, which had a portable ramp to get the motorcycle on and off.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,056 to Patino presented a motorcycle propelled boat, which was particularly designed to mount a motorcycle and to use a drive belt of special designed rear potion of boat that underneath the rear wheel of motorcycle to receive the driving power from said motorcycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,832 to Millard presented a floatation device for snowmobiles for the safety of emergency of breaking through the ice when traveling on a frozen body of water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,317 to Pereira presented a hydro ski watercraft that had a motorcycle suspension. The said suspension made the watercraft safer to ride over rough and choppy water at a high speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,156 Radke, et al. presented a snowmobile powered watercraft that had a pair of forward pontoons mounted to the front suspension in place of conventional skis and a U-shaped rear pontoon mounted to the aft portion of the snowmobile body.
It is clear that these above inventions of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,965,843, 4,522,601, 4,636,176, 5,591,056, 5,682,832, 5,697,317, and, 6,062,156 do not necessarily integrate the two different physical embodiments of motorcycle and motorized watercraft into one physical embodiment; thus, they must be separated to run on roads or on water surfaces. Furthermore, these said inventions do not necessarily intend to provide a structure to reduce the dynamic resistant force of water, and it does not necessary provide an effective steering system and propulsive system.
With the investigation, it shows that there are no such apparatuses in prior arts and existing product inventories, which have integrated the general advantages of the two different transport technologies of motorcycle and motorized watercraft. The aforesaid related inventions do not integrate the characteristics and functions of the two different transport technologies of motorcycle and motorized watercraft together into one vehicle.
The design methodologies of aforesaid related inventions are not to develop an integrated transport vehicle based on when it runs on water surfaces it is a typical conventional motorized watercraft. The design methodologies of aforesaid related inventions are not to develop an integrated transport vehicle based on when it runs on roads it is a typical conventional motorcycle. It is therefore an object of this invention to develop an apparatus to possess the integrated advantages of a motorcycle and a motorized watercraft, and at the same time, to keep the individual characteristics and working functions of the two transport vehicles when it is used differently on roads and on water surfaces as a motorcycle or a motorized watercraft.
In this invention, a new personal transport vehicle is developed based on the integration of the technologies of motorcycle and motorized watercraft. It is characterized by providing some significant features of development with the adoptions and promotions of the advantages of both the motorcycle and the motorized watercraft. In general, the invention is to ride people to desired place over land roads or over water surfaces, and to provide people an amusement utility sports gear.
One of the features is to provide an apparatus that integrates a motorcycle and a motorized watercraft. The integrated structure can be shifted into a motorcycle status or a motorized watercraft status with the rider""s choice to run as a motorcycle on roads, or to run as a motorized watercraft on water surfaces. When it runs, the motorcycle status and the motorized watercraft status are never interfered each another. When one of the two statuses is in working status, the other is disconnected.
One of the features is to provide a structure of hull that integrates the basic structure of a motorcycle and the basic structure of a motorized watercraft. The integrated structure can be shifted into a motorcycle status or a motorized watercraft status with the rider""s choice.
Another feature is to provide a mechanical system that integrates the mechanical system of a motorcycle and the mechanical system of a motorized watercraft. The integrated mechanical system can be shifted into a motorcycle status or a motorized watercraft status with the rider""s choice.
Still another feature is to provide at least one power source, such as, an internal combustion engine, to the apparatus as the driving power. The driving power from the power source can be shifted to drive the driving wheel in the motorcycle status or to drive the water jet propeller in the motorized watercraft status with the rider""s choice.
The invention with its organization, working method, manner of operation, and utilization can be best understood by making reference to the following description of the drawings and the depictions of the invention.